President Trump declared the Senate race in Alaska “over” and his favored candidate Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) the winner — even though the outcome of his race against former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) was far from certain.
Trump has previously fumed about the inclusion of “decoy” Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot, and what he calls a Democratic ploy to draw votes from the senator. He also has urged the Justice Department to investigate.
But on Saturday he went so far as to declare Sen. Sullivan as having “won” the race despite the razor-thin margin and outstanding votes. He was trailing Peltola by fewer than 700 votes.
“Daniel Sullivan is leading substantially in the Alaska Senatorial Race. When you add Daniel (3,600, 1.68%) into Dan, and Gerald Heikes (4,846, 2.27%), Senator Dan Sullivan is up by thousands of Votes. Remember, Heikes was also fraudulently put into the Race,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“I don’t know what takes so long to announce his win. This should be immediate! Anyone voting for Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., a man who tried to change his middle initial, but was unable to get it done in time, and who was otherwise nonpolitical – Never even voted – is a vote for Senator Dan Sullivan. The Alaska Race is OVER. Dan Sullivan WON, BY A LOT!” Trump wrote.
Alaska, which covers an expanse of 586,000 square miles, has a notoriously slow counting process. The state allows 10 days from Election Day for votes to arrive and be counted, and 15 days for overseas ballots. It also uses ranked-choice voting, meaning voters whose first-choice candidate loses have their ballot count for their next choice.
Trump on Thursday proposed that Sullivan should also get the votes people cast for minor candidates. “The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over,” he wrote.
Such an outcome would prevent Sullivan from being counted among a series of Republicans who fell to Democrats in red states during the electoral bloodbath on Tuesday.
A New York Times analysis published Nov. 5 concluded that Sullivan was unlikely to make significant gains through ranked-choice retabulation, since Peltola was actually the second choice of many voters who backed the “decoy” Sullivan. The Times had earlier reported that Peltola’s allies recruited the decoy Sullivan to run.
The latest returns in Alaska showed only 74% of precincts reporting when Trump posted.
